The religious consciousness of our time is shifting through the influences of Eastern mysticism, of psychedelic experience, of eco-feminist spirituality, of liberation theology-all are coming in and playing a major role in shifting the Western world view. The old secularized, scientific perspective which viewed the world as being mechanistic and purposeless, and basically run by chance and necessity, as being simply material forms moved by mechanistic forces, where God was an unnecessary hypothesis, is in radical decline right now. There is a growing recognition that our whole scientific strategy was propelled by a very idiosyncratic, temporary, local way of viewing the world, one that filtered out all possible spiritual dimensions in the universe, by ruling them out a priori as being not scientifically valid. With that world view breaking down, it becomes possible to look at the universe in new ways. As a result, new ways of understanding spirituality are beginning to emerge.

DiCarlo: How did that gap between religion and science occur in the first place?

Tarnas: The gap between religion and science started taking place in the West in the modern period because the basic conception of the world that had been passed on by our religious tradition was not being confirmed by the advances of empirical science and rational philosophy. This began soon after Thomas Aquinas, who was one of the last great integrators of Greek philosophy and science on the one hand and the Christian world view on the other. After that, with the late medieval Scholastics and with the early modern period, there was increasing sense of tension between science and philosophy on the one hand, and religion on the other. There was no preparation for the Copernican revolution in the Christian Bible. So if Copernicus was right it seemed to call into question some literal interpretations of the Bible. With Darwin, that reached a climax. So the scientific world view seemed to be inhospitable to the Christian perspective, at least as literally understood from the Bible by fundamentalist Christians. As a result, certain forms of Christianity tried to repress the modern scientific impulse, as it did with Galileo and as it attempted to do with Darwin. Similarly, scientists began to see religion generally-and Christianity in particular-as being oppressive, limiting and superstitious, although there are many exceptions to this. There are many scientists and religious thinkers who saw value in the other and saw the necessity to integrate the two. Still, the general drift of modern times has been towards a separation.

DiCarlo: Wasn't a "deal" struck between the church and science in general, where science could have the outer world, and the church would take the inner world of soul and spirit?

Tarnas: Essentially what happened is that there was a kind of division-the church got Sunday and science got the rest of the days of the week. The religious consciousness pays attention to the inner soul and science covers the outer world, the place of human beings in the world, our understanding of nature, and so forth. But that created a dichotomy that eventually became unliveable-a kind of schizophrenia between inner and outer-between the human spirit and the world in which the human spirit finds itself located. Eventually, that created a double bind of consciousness that was impossible to live with, and I think that's why there is such a strong impulse to find a new unity.

DiCarlo: What would be the relevance of this change in world view that is taking place to the average person. How does that affect for example, the way a person runs a business? Or how does it affect a person in their personal relationships?

Tarnas: There are many ways in which it is strongly relevant. Business is in many ways the dimension of human experience in society right now that is playing one of the most crucial roles in what the future of the human being and human species is going to be on this planet. It is businesses that are cutting down the forests, and it is business that is looking upon the profit motive and bottom line as being much more important than the support of human community, or the support of ecological diversity and richness and a sensitivity to all forms of nature on the planet as being valuable in themselves. Business is absolutely crucial with respect to how it's all going to turn out. What individual business men and women have to do is look deeply into themselves and recognize that, first of all, if they are going to be true to themselves they need to make their 9 to 5, Monday to Friday life reflect their deepest values and aspirations and not live with one set of ideals at one time, and live another way as part of a cold, calculating corporate climate during the rest of their life.

It's also to the business world's long-term advantage to not act myopically for its short-term profit, because it will not be able to sustain that for very long. They need to think as the indigenous tribes of America thought, "How will this decision affect seven generations from now," rather than, "How does this decision affect next quarter's bottom line?" Next quarter's bottom line is not going to be very relevant to that businessman's or woman's children or great-grandchildren. These are immense responsibilities that the world view shift we are going through right now highlights.

The relationship between male and female in the business world, between human beings and the natural environment, between individual self-betterment and the values of the larger community-these are all crucial issues. Each person has great responsibility for working out that relationship in such a way as to help ensure our future.

DiCarlo: What would you say would be the natural consequence if someone decides to be like an ostrich with their head buried in the sand and say, "Well, maybe there is a shift in world view taking place but it really doesn't affect me. I'll just continue living my life the way I've always lived it."

Tarnas: Psychologically it will eventually take its toll...Whenever one is in a state of denial, what's being denied will eventually have its day and will cause great internal problems. There will be a great sense of internal division, a sense of self-impoverishment, a sense that no matter how much one consumes or no matter how much money one makes, there is a greater and greater sense of emptiness, so the greed gets magnified with less and less satisfaction. This is because one is denying one's roots, one's connection with the rest of the human community. One's connection to the feminine. One's connection to one's feelings and emotions. One's connection to nature and the planetary environment we are rooted in.

There will also be rather concrete business problems which will emerge, whether it happens this year or in ten years. They will emerge because one can only exploit and ruin one's foundations for so long before they will cease to bring forth what one wants. That's what the lumber companies are facing today, even though they try to place the blame on environmentalists. People who know what's going on recognize that the reason many people in the lumber industry are losing their jobs has to do with the fact that the lumbering companies went on an exaggerated, hypertrophic clear-cutting spree over the last 20 years. They just haven't acted in a way that was wisely conscious of the environment.

Also, there's the whole spiritual dimensions of things, which I think becomes most appearant to people when they start facing their own death, whether that happens at age 30 or 60 or later. It's been said that when one is on one's death bed, one seldom has the great regret that one wishes one had spent more time with one's business. Other values become much more apparent at that point-the values of love, of connecting with one's family, with the human community, with one's inner life, with aesthetic and natural experiences, in nature, in art and culture. These become more important than making a profit and trying to prove oneself in the business world, which in retrospect prove to be rather narrow and empty goals. Joseph Campbell used to talk about climbing a ladder until you get to the top and find you had it up against the wrong wall. These are all reflections on how important it is, for their own advantage, that business men and women today become aware of what the shift in world view is all about. It affects them in both their personal and business lives.

Russell E. DiCarlo is a medical writer, author, lecturer and workshop leader who's focus is on personal transformation, consciousness research and the fields of energy and anti-aging medicine. His forthcoming book is entitled "The Definitive Guide To Anti-Aging Medicine" (1998, Future Medicine Publishing). DiCarlo resides in Erie, Pennsylvania.

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